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Thursday, December 31, 2009

I fell in love with this skirt when I first saw it on the Au Bonheur des Petites Mains website. However, there were a couple tiny problems. First, the pattern is sized 36-44 and I am not a 44. Secondly, I don't "do" a skirt with a fitted waist. But I just loved the drape/pocket detailing on this piece, so I figured I would make it work.

Once the pattern arrived, I traced off the skirt, enlarging it to a 46. I then converted it to an elastic waist which involved altering both the skirt and the drape. The pattern piece for the drape itself is large and comes as two pieces that you connect together. The drape is intended to be cut on the bias, but with my alterations the pattern piece was too large to put on the bias. Instead, I cut it offgrain as much as possible. If you look at the garment in the photo, it doesn't look like they cut it on a perfect bias either. :)

The fabric, folded back on itself. It's very different on the two sides!

My hand is inserted into the portion of the fabric that is double sided.

This fabric was a very interesting piece I found last summer. I folded it back in the photo so you can see that it is double sided. Or maybe I should say that the purple portion is double sided. The other areas are a single thickness. The fuzzy "trim" indicates where the double sided part of the fabric ends. Also, the dark stripes between the purple are semi-sheer. The reverse of the fabric is a very sophisticated and slightly shiny stripe. After much thought, I decided to use that side for the drape. Where the drape twists, you can get a peek of the purple before it goes into the solid section of the fabric. It's interesting, eh?

The skirt itself is made from a black woven fabric with a slight stretch and a black stripe-on-stripe.

This was very easy and quick to sew up. I have not put the pocket on it. I am not sure about the pocket on me. The pocket in the pattern is fairly small so if I did use it, I would be tempted to size it up a bit. What do you think?

I have enough of this fabric to make myself another skirt. I am conflicted. I think I will use the purple side, but I also love that darker side...

boutons pression - snaps (the kind you press, or hammer, that show from the front, not the sew-on type)

les bretelles - straps

coté - side ("Fermer les cotés..." = "Close the sides..." or "...du coté plat de la poche..." = "... the flat side of the pocket..."). I also saw it used to describe a side gusset, on the tee pattern with the 4 hanging points that are tied into knots.

emmancher - to fit one part into another, often with a fiddly bit that needs to be adjusted, such as easing a sleeve into an armhole

emmanchure - armhole

empiècement - yoke. Note that in the directions for the skirt I made with the twisted drape, they refer to the drape pattern piece as an "empiècement." My French friend thought this strange. She said usually an empiècement refers to a sewn-in yoke, like on a cowboy shirt.

piquer - to stitch/sew (verb). While the Au Bonheur patterns use the verb "piquer" to indicate stitching, it seems to be a bit inexact. The actual translation of "piquer" is "to sting" or "to bite". "Piquer a la machine" = a machine stitch. The word for a particular type of stitch is "point".

revers - reverse, as in reverse side of the fabric ("pull á col revers" = "pullover with reverse collar"). Also used to describe something that turns back on itself, such as a lapel, a cuff that is formed by folding back the sleeve hem, or a pocket that has a turned-down element.